Automobile crashes are the leading cause of death among novice teen drivers. In their first six months of licensure, teen drivers are up to six times more likely to be involved in fatal crashes than more experienced drivers (over 25 years of age). Insurance premium costs for novice teen drivers reflect this increased risk and crash propensity. Studies by McKnight and McKnight concluded that failures to recognize hazards in the driving environment contributed to approximately 43% of crashes involving this teen driver segment. Studies have also concluded that novice drivers lack the driving experience and the resultant driving behaviors and attitudes that support them. In many states, full licensure is delayed through graduated licensing strategies to minimize the exposure of young drivers to the highest risk periods. The problem then, is how to expose novice teen drivers to the kinds of experiences that will allow them to develop those safe driving schema from which they can then learn to recognize hazards and related dangerous driving conditions without exposing them to actual high risk driving conditions.
Fisher, Pradhan, Pollatsek, et al. concluded that a PC-based training application called Risk Awareness and Perception Training (“RAPT”) aimed at novice teen drivers could be effective in improving the hazard detection skills of novice drivers. The RAPT program was created based on an analysis of police crash reports that indicate new drivers tend to lack three basic skills necessary to avoid crashes: hazard anticipation, attention maintenance and hazard avoidance. Hazard anticipation has to do with knowing where to look for dangers; attention maintenance with concentrating on the road ahead, and hazard avoidance with special driving techniques such as skid control. The RAPT program focused on anticipating dangers. The RAPT program used a personal computer to train novice drivers and a driving simulator to test their hazard recognition skills. On the personal computer, the RAPT program required the novice driver to indicate where the novice driver was looking as the virtual car drove through a hazard module. The hazard module was presented as a series of still photographs that exposed the novice driver to a particular simulated hazard. In one version of the program, the novice driver was shown aerial views of situations and then asked to drag yellow ovals and red circles to the appropriate spots to show where the danger might arise and how to adjust to it. In another version of the program, each still photograph remained on the screen for about 3 seconds and the novice driver used a computer mouse to click on the potential hazards shown in the photographs. In another version of the RAPT program, a series of 16 driving scenarios or hazard modules taught novice drivers to be alert to situations that demand extra caution. The scenarios or hazard modules “drove” through each situation, presented via a series of still photographs, while the novice driver clicked on potential hazards visible in the photographs. The program then detailed safe and unsafe responses. A narrator described the driving choices as the virtual car moved through the photographs.
A driving simulator was then used to test whether the novice drivers improved their abilities to detect and identify hazards. In the RAPT testing simulator, the driver operated the simulator vehicle—an actual Saturn sedan—as if it was on the road. A simulated road ahead was displayed on three screens, one in front and one on each side of the car. As the driver turned the wheel, braked or accelerated, the roadway visible to the driver changed appropriately. The system also provided realistic road, wind and vehicle noises. To test how much the new driver had learned from the RAPT training program, the RAPT testing simulator recreated the sensations of actually driving on the road. The driver operated the controls of a Saturn sedan while the road and various situations scrolled by on three surrounding screens. Subjects were also tested on the road with the help of devices that tracked the movements of their eyes as they scanned their surroundings.
Versions of the RAPT program have been made available on the Internet. However, RAPT3 failed to catch on with novice teen drivers or with driving education instructors and as a result, few people outside of academia have ever heard of, or benefited from the RAPT3 training.
Driving simulator-based training has shown to be potentially effective. While the cost of driving simulators continues to drop, few people have access to driving simulators that have been established for training purposes, and the cost of these is still relatively high. Most driving simulators today are maintained by academic institutions primarily for research purposes. Maintaining driving simulators for training purposes is still cost-prohibitive even for driving schools.